And something else—a faint dankness that made me shudder.
“We ride to the lookout, my lady,” Yuso said. “A scout has reported something in Sethon’s camp.” He watched me closely. “He says it is a demon.”
Although I tried to hold firm, my eyes slid from his scrutiny. “A demon?”
The truth was finally bearing down with all the force of a mountain avalanche. I looked past Yuso at a figure crouched into a tense ball a few lengths away; a man with his arms wrapped over his head, his back heaving with each rasping breath. There was no mistaking that powerful line of shoulder or dark, ragged hair.
Ido.
I pushed past Yuso and sprinted toward the Dragoneye as one of his guards dragged at his arm.
“Leave him!” I shouted. The guard straightened.
“Ido?” I dropped to my knees beside him. “Ido, look at me.” He did not raise his head. “Give him some air,” I ordered, waving back the two guards.
Tentatively, I touched the dark hair. It was wet with sweat. He finally lifted his head.
“Eona.” His shackled hands clasped mine, his skin hot and damp with fever. “He has arrived. Do you feel him?”
“Yes. Why is it so bad?”
“He is far stronger than I thought he’d be,” he whispered. “He is using the death chant from the folio. I can feel death all around him.”
“Can Sethon stop him and take the folio?”
“I don’t think anyone can stop him. Not even us.”
“We have to,” I said. “He wants to kill you.”
Ido’s grasp tightened around my fingers. “He wants to kill both of us.”
His face changed, a warning etched over the lines of pain. At the edge of my vision, I saw the two guards drop into kowtows. I whirled on my knees to face the emperor.
“What is wrong with him?” Kygo said, jerking his chin at Ido. “He looks worse.”
I bowed, but before I could answer, Ido struggled to his feet. All of his grace was gone, stripped away by pain and the awkwardness of his shackled hands.
“There is nothing wrong with me,” he said.
He bent his neck—almost a bow—and walked toward the horses. It must have cost him greatly to move as if his body was not wracked with agony. I dug my fingers into my forehead, pressing back my own pain.
“Come, Naiso.” Kygo offered his hand and pulled me to my feet. “You will ride behind me.”
Very soon, he would know that the demon was Dillon. Was this the time to tell him everything? Truly be his Naiso? If I did, the love in his eyes would be gone forever, replaced by fury and betrayal. Yet it had to be done. I knew it had to be done.
“It will be all right,” he said, drawing my hand to his lips.
His soft kiss on my palm broke my tenuous resolve. It was not going to be all right, but I could not bear to tell him. Not yet.
We rode at a flat gallop, the bone-grinding discomfort barely registering. Every part of me was fixed on the sensation of Kygo’s body against mine: the work of his muscles beneath my hands, the braided rope of his queue pressed under my cheek, the smell of last night’s smoke still in his hair. The ordeal of Dillon and the folio hung over me like a stone weight, but for that short ride, I held on to Kygo and lived within his breath and heartbeat, and the foolish wish that we could stay like this forever.
At the lookout, Ryko caught me as I slipped down from the horse, and held me steady as my trembling leg muscles recovered. My head was full of thick pain.
“Thank you,” I managed.
He gave a quick nod. “My lady”—he pressed his lips together—“Dela says I went too far.”
Before I could respond, Kygo swung neatly out of the saddle and took my hand. Ryko bowed and backed away, the moment gone.
Behind us, Ido dismounted, but his legs buckled beneath him. He rolled away from the horse’s startled stamp, the reflex seeming to take the last of his energy.
“Get him up,” Tozay ordered the guards.
The two men hauled the limp Dragoneye to his feet again, bracing him by his elbows.
No one spoke as we wove our way through the trees, led by the scout who had raised the alarm. I think we could all feel the presence of something dark ahead—a distant disturbance that shivered across the air and lodged in the teeth like a blade drawn across stone.
Another scout turned from his surveillance as we approached the edge of the precipice. It was the same keen-eyed man who had been on duty yesterday. He bobbed his head into a bow as we clustered around him. Everyone except Ido. I looked back at the Dragoneye. He had fallen to his knees, bent double, every breath holding a wheeze of pain.
“It started just before dawn,” the scout said, pointing to a dark cloud of dust on the horizon.
Something was moving through Sethon’s camp toward us, slicing through the soldiers as they tried to stop its progress. Every few moments a surge of men rushed at it, herded forward by a column of cavalry. And each time, the front line of foot soldiers broke against the force of the single moving figure and disappeared into dark dust like black foam on the crest of a wave. An ominous pink mist hung above it all, sweeping rain across the men that churned the mud beneath them red. Their distance from us stole any sound, but the morning breeze brought a stink of fear and offal and the dank metallic edge of blood.
Sethon wanted the black folio so much he had created a death ground for his own men. My stomach lurched. I turned my face away, fighting back an acid rise of vomit.
“In Bross’s name, what is that moving through them?” Kygo said, pressing his hand over his nose.
“It is a boy.” The scout squared his shoulders. “I swear that is what I see, Your Majesty. Yet the soldiers that approach him shrivel into dust and a rain of blood.” He shivered. “It must be a demon.”
“Whatever it is, it’s doing a good job of culling Sethon’s men,” Tozay said.
Kygo looked at Ido, hunched and panting, and then back down at the tiny figure carving its way through the army below. His quick mind was forging the link. He would soon arrive at the answer, and I would be left behind, forever caught in my silence. Forever caught in betrayal.
I had to offer this truth, before it was too late to offer him anything. The huge risk clawed at my breath. But it was now or never.
“It is Dillon and the black folio,” I said. The momentum of truth quickened my words. “I compelled Lord Ido to call him to us. Before Sokayo.”
Kygo’s head snapped up. “Before Sokayo?” he echoed. The suspicion in his face was like a hand around my throat. I heard Ryko hiss.
“A long time for a Naiso to stay silent,” Tozay said caustically.
Ido straightened on his knees, his face gray. “Eona, do not say any more.”
I shook my head. “Dillon is here, Ido. It must all come out now.”
Kygo turned on me. “Are you in league with him?”
“No!”
“Of course we are in league.” Ido swayed with the effort of speaking through his pain. “We are the last two Dragoneyes. Our destinies are locked together, just like our power.” His eyes flicked across to me. “And our desire.”
I froze. What was he doing?
Kygo lunged and grabbed the Dragoneye by his hair, wrenching his head back. “What do you mean by that?”
Ido looked up into Kygo’s face and bared his teeth in a smile. “Ask her what happens when she compels me.”
“Your Majesty, please, we must focus on this boy and the folio,” Tozay said. “He is killing everything in his path and heading straight for us!”
“Lady Eona has some questions to answer,” Kygo snarled. He drew his short blade and laid it across Ido’s straining throat. “Leave us.” Kygo’s hard glance swept the order around the circle of men. “Now!”
“Your Majesty,” Tozay said sharply. “This is not the time—”
“Leave us!”
Tozay glanced around the circle and jerked his head back toward the copse of trees. With deep bows, th
ey all backed away. My eyes skipped over Ryko’s devastation, only to be caught by Tozay’s savage mix of accusation and demand. This was my fault, and it was up to me to stop it.
I gritted my teeth; it was only the start of the truth. There was a lot more to come.
Kygo pulled Ido’s head back harder, forcing a grunt from the Dragoneye. “I should have killed you the moment I saw you.”
“We have been here before,” Ido said, eyeing him steadily. “You will not kill me while you can use my power.”
I flung my hand out at the plain below. “Kygo, Dillon is coming to destroy us. I cannot stop him by myself.”
He glared across at me. “Why didn’t you tell me the boy was on his way? Why are you keeping secrets with this whoreson?” He jerked the Dragoneye’s head back even more. “Tell me everything, or I will cut his throat and be done with it.”
“I am telling you everything,” I snapped, my fear blazing into anger. “I made him call Dillon because I wanted to protect you!”
“From what?”
“From me, Kygo. I know what ‘the Hua of All Men’ means. It is the Imperial Pearl. I was hoping the black folio would have another way to save the dragons.”
Kygo’s jaw clenched, but it was not in shock.
Ido’s labored breathing broke into a harsh laugh. “He already knew it was the pearl, Eona. You can see it in his face.”
Ido was right: Kygo knew. I felt the last few weeks shift under me.
“Why didn’t you tell me?” I gasped.
Kygo narrowed his eyes. “Why do I need to be protected from you, Eona? Are you about to rip the Hua of All Men from my throat?”
“He does not trust you,” Ido said. “That is why he did not tell you.”
“Hold your tongue, or I will cut it out!” Kygo pressed the sword harder against Ido’s skin. The Dragoneye froze under the blade.
“It is not me who wants the pearl, Kygo. It is my ancestor.” I dug my knuckles into the pain that clamped my skull, desperately searching for the right words to make him understand. “The red folio was written by Kinra. She was the last Mirror Dragoneye. The one who tried to steal the pearl from Emperor Dao.”
“You lied even about that? Kinra was a traitor!”
“No, she wasn’t, I am sure of it. She was just trying to save the dragons.” I took a deep breath. “She is in my mind, Kygo. In my blood. Whispering, driving me to take the pearl and save the dragons. She’s even in my swords. Remember at the village inn? She tried to take the pearl then. But I have always stopped her, always held her off. I have always kept you safe!”
“She is in the swords? In your mind?”
“Not all the time. Just when I am too close to the pearl.”
“She is there when we kiss?” His hand went to his throat. “When you touch it?”
“Yes.”
His voice hardened. “Is everything between us just this Kinra driving you toward the pearl?”
“No!” I stepped forward. “It is me. With you. I swear it.”
“And what about me, Eona?” Ido said. “Was it an ancestor or you wrapping your legs around me in the cabin?”
Kygo stared down at him. “What?”
“She never told you about my visit to her cabin on the boat, did she?” Ido said.
“Kygo, that is not what—”
Ido raised his voice over mine. “We used the compulsion power to save the boat from the cyclone.” His smile was a taunt. “You know the power I am talking about, Your Majesty.”
“Is that true, Eona?” Kygo’s voice was ragged.
“We saved the boat.”
“Did you take pleasure from him?”
I could not help the rush of hot truth to my face. “It is in the power, Kygo. I know Ryko told you about it. We saved the boat; that is what matters.”
“What if she did take pleasure?” Ido said. “She is an Ascendant Dragoneye, not one of your concubines. She takes whatever she wants. It is her due.”
“It was not like that!” I clenched my fists. “It was the power that created it. I did not seek it.”
“Do not hide behind your power,” Kygo said. “You are using it for your own ambitions. Your own pleasure.”
“I am not. I have always placed my power in your service. You know that’s the truth.”
His jaw set in disbelief.
There was one way I could show him I was loyal.
I jabbed my finger at the bloody slaughter in the distance. “That black folio can control my power.”
“Eona, what are you doing?” Ido half rose on his knees, stopped by the blade. “You will destroy us.”
I ignored his plea. “Anyone with royal blood can use it to bind a Dragoneye’s will.”
Kygo’s blade dropped from Ido’s throat. “What?”
“Your blood and the folio can compel our power.” My voice cracked.
Kygo released his hold on Ido. The Dragoneye slumped, sucking in air. I could not meet the bleakness in Kygo’s face.
“How long have you known that?” he asked.
“I told her when Sethon took the palace,” Ido said savagely. “So much for your truth bringer. Your Naiso.”
“Why didn’t you tell me, Eona?” Kygo said.
I finally looked up at him. “Why didn’t you tell me about the Hua of All Men?”
Within the lock of our eyes, the same reason stretched between us like a wasteland; neither he nor I trusted enough to place our power in the other’s hands.
Kygo turned his face away. “And you have put all that power in reach of Sethon, in the middle of his army.”
His words hollowed me into a cold husk. All he wanted was the folio and its power. I took a rough breath, fighting tears. Ido lifted his head, vindication in his haggard face. He had been right. Power always wanted more power. It was the nature of the beast.
“Sethon will not be able to stop Dillon,” the Dragoneye said tightly. “The boy is using the Righi.”
Kygo straightened his shoulders. “What is the Righi?”
“It is the folio’s death chant. It rips every bit of moisture from a man’s body and reduces him to dust.”
“Is that what is happening to those men down there?” Kygo touched the blood ring on his finger. “May Bross protect us.”
“Even Bross would find it difficult to stop him,” Ido said.
I looked down at the red churn of Dillon’s death march. He was coming for us. We had to face him or he would kill everything in his path—including the entire resistance army. His power drove a spike into my mind, over and over again, in time to my heartbeat. How could we possibly defeat a madness driven by hate and fed by the immeasurable power of the black folio? Even if we did, and wrenched the book from Dillon’s mind and body, what would happen then?
I looked across at Kygo. He was watching me, and in his eyes I saw the same dark question.
Beside me, Yuso unshackled Ido, the irons clinking as he pulled them away from the Dragoneye’s wrists. Ido slowly flexed his hands and rolled his shoulders, ignoring the captain’s belligerent refusal to step back.
“Your Majesty!” The scout rose from his crouch and pointed across the plain. “Sethon’s men have turned on each other!”
I hung back as Kygo crossed to the precipice edge. I did not know where to stand anymore. At his side? I doubted it.
“Lady Eona. Lord Ido. See this,” he ordered brusquely.
I followed Ido across the small clearing. We both peered over the edge. Below us, the ragged waves of foot soldiers around Dillon had changed direction and were pushing back against the horsemen driving them to their death. I squinted, trying to gain more detail in the haze of red mist and flying mud. They were not only pushing; they were hacking at each other and trying to flee.
“The boy has forced his way through an entire army,” Kygo said into the sickened silence.
“I would say Sethon has lost near to a thousand men,” Tozay said. “And the Hua-do of those left. He will have a task ahead to r
egroup.”
Kygo looked at Ido. “Are you sure you have to get near Dillon to defeat the folio?”
Ido nodded. “Dillon is draining the Rat Dragon’s power. My power.” Pain roughened his voice. “I will strike from that angle and block him from the beast in the celestial plane, but Lady Eona will have to strike the black folio. And that means contact with it.”
I flinched, remembering the burn of its words in my mind.
“We will need to use every source of power we have,” Ido added. “Including her compulsion over me.”
Even now, he baited Kygo. The two men stared at one another in fierce silence.
“You are ignoring another source of power,” Kygo finally said. “My blood and the black folio together can compel dragon power. If Lady Eona can get me close enough, I can stop Dillon.”
“No!” Tozay and I said together.
“Your Majesty, you must not risk yourself,” Tozay insisted.
“You want me to sit by while Lady—” He bit off what he was about to say. “I cannot sit by while others face such horror.”
A tiny glimmer of warmth broke across my desolation.
“That is what a king does,” Tozay said flatly. “Your Majesty, if you attempt to go down there, I will stop you by force. Even if it means my execution.”
Kygo glared at him. “I am not my father, Tozay. I do not blindly hand over my trust and my military because I cannot face the realities of war. I am not afraid of fighting.”
I gasped. He would anger the gods with such disrespect.
Tozay drew himself up. “Your revered father was never afraid,” he said. “He was devoted to this land and he did not want to see it plunged into eternal warmongering. I thought his son was the same.”
“I am,” Kygo ground out. “To a certain point.”
“We are not at that point yet, Your Majesty. Believe me.”
Kygo turned and walked a few paces across the clearing as if working the frustration from his body. “Then at least take some of my blood.”